Institutional Repositories and the Institutional Repository: College and University Archives and Special Collections in an Era of Change

This article reports on the archival implications of the 2006 Census of Institutional Repositories in the United States¹ and follow-up interviews with the developers of institutional repositories in selected colleges and universities. The findings indicate that archivists generally play a quiet but persistent role in institutional repositories, and archival and special collections materials are a major source of content in institutional repositories. Institutional repositories (IRs) are becoming an extension of the institutional repository (archives). Still, a great deal of uncertainty surrounds preservation in IRs, and a potential, albeit currently unfilled, role for the archivist exists in providing digital preservation expertise for the IR.